Lin-Manuel Miranda Is Collaborating With Google to Digitize Puerto Rico’s Art

There’s no shame in admitting that we use Google as a link to the world. The search engine is like a well-lit path that can take you to heavenly places and scary ones too. Google also serves as our encyclopedia — and gives us insight into the most incredible works. For the past couple of years, Google has branched out into the culture and arts education. Sure, we can Google any artwork or artist, but through their Google Arts & Culture website, the content is streamlined and curated beautifully. They did a phenomenal job with their exploration of Mexico arts and culture, and now they are doing it with Puerto Rico. They also hired the best curator for the job.

Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father Luis Miranda Jr. are collaborating with Google Arts & Culture for a “massive digitization project at four art institutions in Puerto Rico,” ArtNews reports. The collaboration was born after Lin-Manuel visited Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña in San Juan. It was there that he was informed that the building lacked a permanent space for exhibitions of its collection and the same could be said about other cultural institutions in PR.

Miranda and his father, Luis Miranda Jr., have partnered with Google Arts and Culture for a new digitization project aimed at archiving art housed in major Puerto Rican museums. https://t.co/tXzA4h3XOE

— Smithsonian Magazine (@SmithsonianMag) November 12, 2019

The digital project is an extensive one, which requires each art piece to be photographed with Google’s ultra-high-resolution camera. The artwork was gathered from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, Museo de Arte de Ponce, and Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. Several of the artworks on the Google website are presented beautifully and are accompanied by a story, which gives way to experience as if you’re in the museum itself. Lin-Manuel has been a fierce advocate of restoring Puerto Rico in various forms in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

“Bringing Puerto Rican art into global focus has been a personal passion of Lin’s for years, but the urgency was heightened post-Hurricane Maria,” the Google team said in a statement to Mashable. “The project comes at an important time: due to budget cuts and storage limitations, some of the art being digitized is not currently on view, even to Puerto Ricans.”

Bienvenidos to the island of Puerto Rico! 🇵🇷In collaboration with @Lin_Manuel and four local institutions, @googlearts brings you the heritage and culture of #PuertoRico, digitized and available to all. Explore the Caribbean mosaic that is Puerto Rico → https://t.co/nqPYyv9MAD pic.twitter.com/uQ3uNz5m5n

— Google (@Google) November 8, 2019

According to Mashable, the project includes 48 digitized pieces for the website. However, with one click to the Google Arts & Culture Puerto Rico, you will be immersed with thousands of photographs, stories, and historical imagery from Puerto Rico. You will get lost in the culture of Puerto Rico on that site for days, and it’s actually a very great use of your time.